Friday, January 21, 2011
LA Times Recommends Ballroom Dance for Fitness
The success recipe for fitness: Mix in the fun
The best way to keep that New Year's resolution to get more fit is to find ways to make it a blast. Some ideas? Surfing, trail running, dancing, kayaking and the in-your-face Krav Maga.
By Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Time
January 3, 2011
But exercise shouldn't be drudgery. Plenty of pleasurable activities deliver a legitimate workout without the hamster-on-a-wheel feeling. Surfing, kayaking, ballroom dancing, trail running and self-defense classes are just a few ways to avoid a fitness rut or supplement a regular gym workout. Some offer other benefits too, such as being outside, expanding one's social network and building confidence by mastering a new skill.
"Exercise doesn't have to be boring," says Shawn M. Arent, director of the Human Performance Lab at Rutgers University in New Jersey. "It can be fun and addictive in a good way."
For the rank beginner, calculating cardiovascular benefits or measuring muscle strength shouldn't be the priority. "Get out and do something," says Matt Seeley, exercise science professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. "Try to incorporate 15 minutes of some activity. Don't worry so much about what you're doing — I would call going from nothing to 15 minutes a success. Then start to increase that."
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Ballroom dancing
Any doubts about the transformative abilities of ballroom dance should be dashed after watching one season of "Dancing With the Stars" and seeing celebrities going from flabby to fit in a matter of weeks.
Sure, they're rehearsing five to six hours a day, week after week. But the spins, turns, lifts, kicks and fast footwork of the routines show the athleticism and technique that make up the waltz, tango, cha-cha and other dances.
"I think people are happy it's a workout," says Erin Stevens, president of the Pasadena Ballroom Dance Assn."At the end of a class you feel like you've enriched your life in so many ways — you've burned calories and made friends and learned an art form."
Workout intensity varies by dance, but all have something to offer. "In the rumba, which is a sensual dance, you work your hips a lot," says Peri Rogovin, owner of 3rd Street Dance in Los Angeles, where many "DWTS" contestants rehearse. "That's good for the waistline, and also for coordination."
Faster dances, such as the salsa and cha-cha, build up endurance, while slower ones, like the Argentine tango, feature more muscle control via leg extensions and holds, torso rotations and back posture. Legs get most of the workout in ballroom, but the arms are engaged as well, toning muscles and raising heart rates.
Diana Bolinger has been taking swing and other ballroom dance classes at PDBA for a dozen years and credits it with regaining her fit self after having children. "It's mostly cardio, but you're also strengthening your arms and legs. You can sometimes feel it the next day." While she didn't need to lose weight, she adds, "I felt like I was more fit and not as flabby."
Most studios offering ballroom classes for pairs don't require students to pony up a partner; dancers typically rotate partners anyway. But the ballroom craze has also spawned fitness-dance hybrid classes in which an instructor leads a roomful of people in easy choreographed steps. Louis Van Amstel, a "DWTS" regular and champion competitive dancer, kicks off a class called Dance Blast at Crunch in L.A. later this month, teaching men and women such dances as the cha-cha, salsa and jive to an eclectic and high-energy mix of music.
"It works from a fitness point of view because a lot of people can do it," Van Amstel says. "Everybody can learn how to dance."
For more information on ballroom dance instruction and dance fitness classes, please visit http://www.heartsoledance.com
For the full article, click here: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-0103-fun-fitness-20110103,0,4411652,print.story
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